The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hears testimony from Richard Milanovich at an oversight hearing to investigate tribal lobbying in Washington, Sept. 29, 2004. / GNS

Michael Scanlon walks into the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Court House in Washington for his sentencing hearing on Feb. 11, 2011. Scanlon pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy to bribe lawmakers and honest services fraud. He was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison. / GANNETT

Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to testimony during a hearing on lobbying practices involving Indian tribes before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on June 22, 2005 in Washington, D.C. / Getty Images

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Jack Abramoff says he’s sorry.

Sorry for the crimes that put him in federal prison for 43 months on corruption charges. Sorry for bilking millions of dollars out of the Indian tribes he represented as an influential Washington, D.C., lobbyist — including the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Sorry for his efforts to influence tribal council elections, in Palm Springs and elsewhere, to install allied tribal members and keep the money flowing out of the tribes’ accounts and into his.

Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon, who also was convicted on federal corruption charges, took $10 million in lobbying fees from the Agua Caliente. All told, they took more than $82 million from six tribes seeking their assistance with Washington lawmakers — and bragged to each other in emails about how they were overcharging and ripping off the tribes.

It’s been 10 years since Abramoff and Scanlon’s lobbying work with the Agua Caliente. Abramoff wrote a book about his rise and fall as a Washington lobbyist in “Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption from America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist.” He’s a born-again reformer warning America how to avoid in the future what he did.

“People are fed up with that world, the world I was in and participated in,” Abramoff said in an interview with The Desert Sun.

“You see it with the tea party movement, the Occupy Wall Street movement. People are just fed up. There are too many special hands in the mix that the average person can’t compete, and they don’t have a chance. They resent the inside access of lobbyists — as well they should.”

Steven McSloy, an Indian law attorney and law school professor who has represented the Agua Caliente on financing bond initiatives, put Abramoff and his deeds in perspective in an essay published in Indian Country Today in 2005. One would have to reach back to President Theodore Roosevelt or even Gen. George Armstrong Custer to find someone who did as much damage to American Indian sovereignty as Abramoff, McSloy stated.

“Each of these three — Abramoff, Roosevelt and Custer — did the same thing to Indians; they saw Indians had wealth and they set out by any means to get it,” McSloy stated.

“For Custer, it was gold in the Black Hills. ... For Roosevelt, the greatest proponent of ‘manifest destiny,’ it was tribal land. ... For Abramoff, it was casino money.”

How it began

Abramoff headed to Palm Springs to meet with Agua Caliente members Virginia Siva and Candace Patencio in early 2002, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs’ final report on the Abramoff scandal.

A member of another tribe who was a friend of Abramoff’s, Michael Chapman, introduced the Agua Caliente members to him. Chapman explained that Siva and Patencio were dissatisfied with the Agua Caliente’s current Washington lobbying firm. Via email, he gave Abramoff something of a dossier on the two women, who were cousins.

Siva, a longtime tribal council member, was contemplating challenging Richard Milanovich for tribal chair in council elections. Patencio had previously served on the council for five years, and sought a return. Her family was one of the larger ones within the tribe. Her parents had both served on the tribal council in the past, including a stint at chairman for her father, Chapman said.

“I am dear friends with both and we have vacationed together in Utah and Hawaii — under the guise of Indian business,” he stated.

The two women were also related to the tribe’s treasurer, Moraino Patencio, Chapman explained. If they prevailed, they would have controlling interest on the five-member tribal council, he stated.

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Abramoff dined with Siva and Candace and Moraino Patencio at the Canyon Bistro Restaurant in downtown Palm Springs, according to the Senate investigative report. Candace Patencio later told Senate investigators that she didn’t know Abramoff was a lobbyist or the purpose of the meeting, a claim investigators disbelieved based on Chapman’s testimony and other evidence.

Attempts to reach Siva or the Patencios for comment for this story were unsuccessful.

Abramoff and the three tribal members planned to meet again in Washington the following month, at Signatures, Abramoff’s swank new restaurant, as the tribal members came to the capital for the National Indian Gaming Association conference.

According to emails between Abramoff and Candace Patencio obtained by the Senate committee, Abramoff offered to introduce the tribal members to U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., for whom Abramoff was holding a reception at Signatures at that time. Abramoff also offered Patencio tickets to a Washington Wizards NBA basketball game, citing Michael Jordan’s playing on the team. Patencio replied that she talked to Siva and they declined the basketball offer but took Abramoff up on the dinner.

Abramoff met with Siva and the two Patencios a second time the next day, Feb. 27. By this time, he was apparently devising how to leverage political contributions from the tribe to further his lobbying firm. In an email to his assistant, Ilisa Gertner, Abramoff stated: “Please let the Hutchinson guys know that they are coming (Candace, Virginia Siva and a third fellow — can’t remember his name). Tell them that they are not currently going to be able to contribute, but that they will in March be in a position where they control their tribe and will be able to be helpful on a Choctaw level.”

According to the Senate investigative report, Abramoff, Siva and Candace and Moraino Patencio discussed his coming on to represent the Agua Caliente, and helping Siva and Candace Patencio with their upcoming tribal elections. Following the meeting, Abramoff emailed Scanlon: “I saw them tonight. They really can’t wait for you to lead them to the promised land! Tomorrow night, after the reception at Sigs, let’s take them to dinner and lock up the deal.”

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Candace Patencio denied to Senate investigators that she sought Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s assistance with the election. “Things kinda fell in place,” she said.

Helping new friends

The report states: “Before the Agua Caliente Tribal Council elections, Scanlon asked Abramoff, ‘Hey – How much do you want me to spend on the AC (Agua Caliente) race – I gotta get a team out there ASAP – Like 3 people – Then rotate a new team in after that – So travel is goanna [sic] run about 20k and materials like 5 – 10k. Should we go for it?’ Abramoff instructed Scanlon, ‘Yes, go for it big time.’ ”

Scanlon had similarly worked in Michigan in 2001 to install Saginaw Band of Chippewa Indians tribal council members favorable to his and Abramoff’s lobbying firm. According to the Senate investigative report, “From March 6 through 10, 2002, Scanlon’s team (in Palm Springs) drafted candidate letters and fliers, paid for the envelopes and postage, secured a site and catering for a community meeting, assisted in door-to-door campaigning, and prepared the candidates for the community meeting.”

“Abramoff and Scanlon’s objective was ensuring that ‘friendly’ tribal members who would support contracts with them were elected and, conversely, potentially unsupportive members were defeated. Richard Milanovich, Chairman of the Tribe and Siva’s opponent in the 2002 elections, was targeted by Abramoff as ‘our enemy.’ ”

The level of involvement by Scanlon’s team in Palm Springs included drafting talking points for the tribal candidates. “We will communicate that this election is about direct leadership by people who are in touch with the tribe. You are the new leaders, the leaders who will take the tribe into the future. Not the old leaders who are only looking out for number one,” materials obtained by the Senate investigative committee stated.

The campaign was purportedly designed to put the candidates in contact with every voter in the roughly 430-member tribe “at least five times over the next 7 days,” according to the Senate report. Scanlon and his team divided potential voters into three tiers, and supposedly tailored their candidates’ messages to each tier. The campaign plan consisted of four general components: mail; door-to-door; phones; and a candidates meeting.”

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As part of the door-to-door effort, “Scanlon had one of his employees drive Candace Patencio around in a car rented by Scanlon specifically for Candace Patencio’s personal visits with tribal members,” according to the Senate report.

“In furtherance of the strategy, Scanlon also put together a walking map with voters and a document titled ‘Palm Springs and Cathedral City Walk List’ containing the names of tribal members and their addresses,” the Senate report states. “Candace Patencio, however, claimed the map was inaccurate and, therefore, unhelpful.”

Scanlon hosted a candidates night event on March 10, 2002, for Siva and Candace Patencio at the Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel. According to the Senate report, Candace Patencio said the event was attended by fewer than 20 people, most of them her family members.

Abramoff told The Desert Sun he didn’t remember many specifics about his firm’s efforts for the Agua Caliente. Though his parents lived in the Coachella Valley at the time, Abramoff said, “I think I only made it out there three or four times, max.”

Abramoff said lobbyists are often called upon to get involved in attempting to influence tribal elections.

“I think it’s totally improper,” he said. “It’s one of the great things I regret that I did — even invited in. It’s totally improper; it’s totally inappropriate.”

In tribal elections March 18, 2002, Candace Patencio was elected to tribal council, but Milanovich retained his chairmanship, defeating Siva. “Virginia did not listen to Mike Scanlon’s campaign guidance and did not work hard enough. Very sad,” Abramoff wrote to a staffer of his lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.

But that setback wasn’t going to hold back Abramoff and Scanlon’s plans to amass Agua Caliente tribal funds.

Secret meetings

In April 2002, Abramoff asked Candace Patencio when he and Scanlon could meet with Agua Caliente tribal leadership to make a sales pitch. He proposed a secret collaboration, with Patencio helping to install Abramoff’s firm and his assistance in turn making her the shadow, de facto leader of the tribe.

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“I think what we have in mind is helping the tribe set up the kind of political strength we have done for others, but doing it very carefully so that you are the ultimate controller of the political power,” Abramoff stated in an April 1 email to Patencio.

“To do this, unfortunately, we’ll have to get the approval of the current regime, I guess.”

How best to introduce Abramoff and Scanlon to the tribe was up to Patencio, Abramoff stated.

“Again, Mike and I see the mission here as getting in, getting you guys organized so we can get the slot cap off and other things the tribe needs, and getting you into a position where the next time an election comes, we will win all the offices (and install you as Chairperson!!!),” his email stated.

Patencio, in a response email, questioned whether introducing the firm to the tribal council through herself and Moraino Patencio was the best strategy. Abramoff replied, “If the others on the tribal council perceive we are your guys (which we are!) it might make it difficult.”

Abramoff suggested Patencio bring up the names of his firm’s other tribal clients.

Abramoff began intimating to Candace Patencio that his firm was also in negotiations with the Barona Band of Mission Indians in Lakeside. “During her interview, Candace Patencio confirmed that she was concerned that the Barona Tribe was allegedly seeking Abramoff’s services, since she did not want that tribe to have the power,” the Senate investigative report states.

With Patencio motivated to install Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s firm with the Agua Caliente, Abramoff wrote an email to Scanlon with the subject line, “Can you smell the money?”

After flying to Palm Springs to meet with the Agua Caliente Tribal Council at their June 26, 2002 meeting, Abramoff reported to colleagues they had agreed in principle to a deal to pay his firm $150,000 per month. “This is going to be a biggie!” Abramoff stated in an email.

The Agua Caliente had spent only $140,000 for federal lobbying the entire previous year.

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That July, Abramoff made another pitch to the tribal council, outlining its “global strategy” that included the creation of several databases by Scanlon helpful to achieving the tribe’s goals on garnering more slot machines for its casinos and other tribal priorities. At no point did he disclose the financial relationship between himself and Scanlon, the Senate investigative report states.

Abramoff also referenced the importance of political contributions. Tribes may be asked to contribute to certain lawmakers who have nothing to do with their particular concerns, he explained, “but we know that that member will be able to control or influence a bill.”

The tribal council approved the lobbying contract with Greenberg Traurig, but there was less support for also retaining Scanlon and his grassroots, database efforts at a cost of $5.4 million. Milanovich in particular voiced concerns. Ultimately, Scanlon’s contract was approved on July 23, 2002, by a 3-2 vote, with Candace Patencio, Moreino Patencio and Jeannette Prieto-Dodd in favor; Milanovich and tribal vice-chair Barbara Gonzalez-Lyons opposed.

For his part of the deal, Scanlon said he would “execute public affairs and political strategies to ensure successful re-negotiation of the tribe’s gaming compact.” His contract called for an additional $2 million “should the compact renewal campaign become intensive.”

That extra $2 million became important later. On Dec. 10, 2002, Scanlon informed Abramoff they’d been paid the $5 million from the Agua Caliente, and that he was preparing to go back before the tribal council and claim they needed the additional money for expenses.

“I did up a presentation and we are asking for 1.785 Thursday,” Scanlon stated. “The reason we are doing it Thursday is that Richard and Barbara are out of town. I could ask for the whole 2 but that would look strange. I could bump it up to 1.875? Whatta think?”

Responded Abramoff, “Absolutely!”

The squeezing of money out of the Agua Caliente continued on several fronts. In a September 2002 email to colleague Duane Gibson, Abramoff said they needed “to move on Agua contributions asap.” According to the Senate investigative report, Abramoff also sought tribal contributions for luxury suites at MCI Center, FedEx Field and Camden Yards, where the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the NFL’s Washington Redskins and Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles play, respectively.

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“Goal: provide members and staff with courtesy tickets to sport games and other events, which help to create the relationships needed to advance issues important to the tribe,” Abramoff’s pitch to the tribe stated. The Agua Caliente Tribal Council approved an additional $300,000 toward the skyboxes.

Another chain of emails in November 2002 illustrated how the tribe was being charged fees against its knowledge.

Gibson emailed Abramoff on Nov. 12, asking about the Agua Caliente’s $25,000 invoice. It included a $10,000 consulting fee for Michael Chapman and a $5,000 consulting fee for Sierra Dominion Financial Resources.

Abramoff responded, “One is the finder’s fee for Chapman and the other I’ll tell you about. They come out of our retainer and should not be listed to the client ever. Please make sure they are never on the bill that goes to them.”

When Gibson responded that the previous month’s invoice to the tribe included the Sierra Dominion billing, Abramoff exploded. “This is a disaster!!!!!!” he wrote.

“Gibson subsequently allayed Abramoff’s fears by assuring him Chapman’s fees had only appeared on the draft bill,” the Senate investigative report states.

“Whew!” replied Abramoff.

The Senate investigation found Sierra Dominion was owned by Julie Doolittle, the wife of California U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville. Sierra Dominion purportedly provided public relations work for Abramoff’s restaurant and a planned fundraiser for Abramoff’s Capital Athletic Foundation. Investigations later showed the foundation was used for political and personal causes, and only 1 percent of the charity’s receipts went to youth sports programs.

Though Chapman was being paid $10,000 a month from the funds Abramoff received from the Agua Caliente, purportedly for consultancy services, emails between Abramoff and Scanlon told a different story.

“We should give this guy (Chapman) a small tip out of the gimme five money too,” Abramoff said to Scanlon, referring to their code name for the strategy to represent tribes for huge money. “I want him to have mega incentive to scan the nation and hook us up with all his friends.”

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More than $171,000 was paid to Chapman out of Agua Caliente funds.

In less than two years, the Agua Caliente tribe paid Greenberg Traurig more than $3 million in fees and expenses, according to the Senate investigative report. It also paid Scanlon nearly $7.2 million over that time.

“(Scanlon) during the relevant period ... appears to have secretly split about 50 percent of his total profit from that tribe with Abramoff,” the investigative report states.

By January 2003, it was clear the Agua Caliente and other large gaming tribes would get updated compacts allowing them thousands more slot machines at their casinos, in exchange for additional revenues to the state of California.

“I think California is definitely going to get more slots — Gray needs the money,” said Chris Cathcart, a Greenberg Traurig associate, referring to then-Gov. Gray Davis in a Jan. 2, 2003, email. “But it also means we will not be alone at the trough.”

In an email from Abramoff to Scanlon that same day, he stressed the priority of spinning Agua Caliente Tribal Council members.

“We have to make them think this is all happening because of the money they spent with us. Can we do it?” Abramoff said, adding in a second email to Scanlon, “The key is making them think they got a victory and the money was worth it.”

Another election shot

Though Abramoff and Scanlon were contractually representatives of the entire Agua Caliente tribe, as tribal elections approached in 2003, they renewed their clandestine alliance with Candace Patencio.

“When you have time let me know and we (will) talk strategy for the up and coming election,” she emailed to Abramoff on Jan. 14, 2003.

Some tribal leaders, including Milanovich, were beginning to question the outlays to Abramoff and Scanlon and the returns they were getting for them. Scanlon on Jan. 29, 2003, outlined the progress his firm had made on database-building and outreach “in an attempt to further answer several of the questions you raised in our conference call late last month.”

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Noted the Senate investigative report: “Abramoff and Scanlon’s goal was to ensure that Candace Patencio would win in an effort to oust their only opposition within the tribe, Chairman Milanovich and Vice Chairman Gonzales-Lyons.”

Patencio emailed Abramoff on Jan. 29, the same day that Scanlon sent the letter outlining the firm’s progress.

“Barbara is on the attack of your firm,” Patencio stated, referring to the tribal vice-chairwoman. “She and Richard have made the mistake of on record claiming not knowing what the firm is doing. Virginia (Siva) pointed out that it is the responsibility of the Tribal Council to know what is going on. Virg also pointed out that the Chairman has been back to DC and doesn’t he know what you are doing??? Richard said he had questions.”

Patencio discussed a strategy of portraying Gonzalez-Lyons as out-of-touch for not understanding what Abramoff and Scanlon were doing for their money.

Noted Abramoff to Scanlon in a separate email, “We need to make sure Candace wins and bye bye Barbara and Richard.”

On Feb. 9, Chapman informed Abramoff and Scanlon of a positive development.

“I just talked to Candace — great news for the most part at Agua,” he stated. “She said Moraino, Virginia and Jeannette are all running unopposed! And, she and Barbara are running against one another for vice-chair. The elections are on March 18 ... We definitely need to devise a strategy to help Candace — it is now or never! Since there are so few tribal members we should be able to do a breakdown of each potential vote to be cast.”

Candace Patencio, however, would lose to Gonzalez-Lyons that March.

In several of the Abramoff emails produced by the Senate committee investigation, Abramoff referred to his tribal clients as “idiots,” “monkeys” or “troglodytes.”

“The perfidy and inappropriate activity and behavior abounded,” he told The Desert Sun. “I’m mortified and embarrassed that I did it, and if I could take it back, I would.”

Abramoff noted that out of about 850,000 emails, the Senate committee led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “parsed out 100” for its investigative report, emails when he was “jocular or stupid or times when I was upset with clients.” At times, he said he mimicked Scanlon’s derogatory comments about tribal members “trying to keep Scanlon’s head in the game.”

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“It was a stupid strategy that I regret,” he said. “It didn’t reflect how I felt.”

The Washington Post on Feb. 22, 2004, ran a story exposing Abramoff’s lucrative work with Indian gaming tribes. Despite no major political issues for the tribes, they were paying rates comparable to what mega-corporations such as General Electric pay to more than two dozen lobbying firms, or that four pharmaceutical companies paid to dozens of lobbying firms over that time, the Post found.

The Senate investigative report notes that Scanlon referred to the story as an “attack piece,” and during a meeting with Milanovich in Washington, asked the Agua Caliente to write a letter of support for him and Abramoff to The Washington Post. The tribe declined.

Further fallout was swift. Greenberg Traurig pressured Abramoff into resigning from the firm within two weeks of the article’s publication. The Agua Caliente suspended its contracts with Greenberg Traurig and Scanlon’s firms by April 2004. The Senate Indian Affairs committee began its hearings within weeks.

Scanlon in November 2005 pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, and was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison in February 2011. On Jan. 3, 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion charges. He was sentenced to prison for four years in September 2008.

Ultimately, 21 people would be convicted in connection to the Abramoff scandal, including former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, for bribe-taking from Abramoff; former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles for lying to Senators; lobbyist Tony Rudy, former aide to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, for conspiring with Abramoff; and David Safavian, a former staffer to President George W. Bush, for covering up his dealings with Abramoff.

Abramoff was released from prison in June 2010. His warning to prevent a repeat of his actions: follow, and reform, the money.

“If there’s money involved, there are going to be people who want to participate with that money,” he said. “That is the lobbyist’s M.O. at times, and it certainly was ours.”

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Gifts such as concert and sporting tickets and junkets to exotic locales for lawmakers “are absolutely bribery,” he said, but legal.

“The problem in D.C. isn’t necessarily the things that are illegal; it’s the things that are legal.”

It’s not a surprise that many public servants leave Washington with far more money in their bank accounts, Abramoff said. “We are privy not only to insider information, but information that not even the companies have,” he said.

Abramoff was ordered to pay $44 million in restitution to his bilked clients, though he’s not sure how he’ll ever be able to do so.

“I hope at some point in my life I can find a way to reconcile with the tribes I still love, and not be seen as a second Custer or Andrew Jackson among the people I am very fond of,” he said.

Lessons learned

As the truth about Abramoff and Scanlon became exposed, Milanovich at the Western Indian Gaming Conference in Palm Springs in January 2006 apologized to members of his and other tribes.

“It really pains me. It hurts me to know that the fallout from that (scandal) is affecting all of us in Indian Country, not just our tribe,” Milanovich said. “I apologize to each and every one of you and to all of your people for it happening, and I know that other tribes also regret that it took place.”

Milanovich later said he felt “betrayed,” but noted he had reservations about bringing in Abramoff and Scanlon from the beginning.

“We have done nothing wrong, but still we are having our names drug through the mud,” Milanovich said. “It was a few individuals who took advantage of the system.”

Milanovich died March 11, 2012, after 28 years leading the Agua Caliente. His successor, Jeff Grubbe, in an interview last month called the Abramoff scandal “a very sensitive issue for this tribe.”

“It helped us become a stronger tribe, especially dealing with lobbyists,” he said. “Something I’ve gained from that is, making the lobbyists accountable for the work they do for the tribe, spending time with them. We (now) have great lobbyists, and they do a great job for this tribe. I don’t think we’ll fall into that type of situation ever again, because we’re very careful with who we bring on, who we work with.”

Grubbe declined to discuss whether Siva or Candace Patencio paid a price within the tribe for their actions outlined in the Senate’s Abramoff probe.

“That’s kind of internal politics within the tribe,” he said. “We’ve dealt with it and we’ve moved on.”

Grubbe said the incident may have made tribal officials more cautious, but not distrustful in their non-tribal dealings.

“I don’t ever want to talk with people or meet with people and already have a distrustful feeling about them,” he said.